


Would you dance with me?

by jeffgangfan



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M, ZombieApocalypse!Au, don't blame me, human!AU, it's the stress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-03-21
Packaged: 2018-03-18 20:45:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3583413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeffgangfan/pseuds/jeffgangfan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They locked eyes, a devised plan confirmed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Would you dance with me?

**Author's Note:**

> awkwardsleepyhead is my dear beta!  
> I wrote this in my free time to relieve the stress.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, Rick Riordan does.

“Percy, would you dance with me?” Nico asked, twirling his dagger between bony fingers. The machete lying in reach, a gun fully loaded in their backpack. His boyfriend’s gaze shifted from the ground to look at him and Nico’s heart ached a little for his dull, tired eyes that used to be glassy sea green. An infected gash trailed down from his cheekbone, the area of skin around it disturbingly red. His left shoulder was wounded with a blood-curdling bite mark. Percy was bitten.

The previous day, Nico and Percy failed to return to their friends in time, who had no other option but to leave the spot immediately before the zombie surge found them. Arriving there at the worst timing possible, the two almost got killed, lost most of their supplies and food. After having been bitten, Percy suffered from a splitting headache and burning fever. Nico helped him retreat onto the rooftop of this apartment building, hoping that they would have enough time for this current surge to dissipate so they could escape. Hopefully the scientist Will Solace would have a cure and he could heal Percy. If only the green-eyed could hold on a little longer and stopped telling Nico that it was over for him.

“You know I suck at dancing,” Percy croaked and Nico could see the glint of a grin in his eyes. Percy had said this whenever Nico asked him for a dance, they had still been in high school and life hadn’t been hell. It was the first time since the apocalypse that Nico heard it again. Nostalgia was one of your worst enemies in times like this.

“There’s no one else for you to compare yourself with,” Nico tried.

“There’s no music.”

“We can imagine whatever song we like.”

Percy inhaled, looking less pale and wrecked when he tried to smile. It was the fresh air that did him good. After months of roaming the streets with the smell of death and decay hanging over them, fresh air on the rooftop of a twenty-floor building was truly tonic to their wary bodies.

Nico stood up and winced at his injured leg. Percy scooted over and supported him by his arm, he smiled a little to return Nico’s small one. Moments like this lifted their spirits up and Nico cherished them with all of his heart. His hand on Percy’s shoulder, the other laced with Percy’s, the dark brown-eyed tried his best to sway with the imaginary music in his head.

“I love you,” Percy said.

“I love you, too, Perseus,” Nico whispered, his head against the other’s chest. Percy rested his head on Nico’s thin shoulder, thumb stroking little circles tenderly. Nico frowned when he saw the bite mark from his angle, he turned and tried to pretend it wasn’t there, slowly killing Percy.

“After this, I’ll get you a new shirt,” Percy said, surprising Nico because the green-eyed had displayed doubt on his chance of surviving quite clearly after having been bitten. He looked down at his torn and blood-splattered skull tee shirt as Percy kissed his forehead, his hair.

“You will? Promise me, Jackson.”

“I’ll try my best, di Angelo.”

Nico didn’t mean to make Percy promise, he just wanted to encourage Percy to hold on and be the optimist he used to be. The shorter cupped his boyfriend’s face and pulled him down for a kiss.

Percy responded to it as if it had been his first with Nico. It did feel so, though, since they had too much to deal with in the wreck of Manhattan and walking among the undead wasn’t exactly a romantic background. Nico trailed his hand down from Percy’s face to his chest, touching the claw marks on the faded jacket. The taller wrapped his arm around Nico, a genuine embrace, irrational longing displayed openly. His body was cold but when they pressed their foreheads together, Nico realized Percy was feverish. He wondered if Percy would notice when he sneaked away to fetch some medicine, risking travelling within the zombie surge.

 

“Percy, wake up!” Nico cried. He tried to shook the older before it was too late. His boyfriend’s eyelashes fluttered and he was on his feet immediately, eyes scanning for danger. Nico pointed down below them, his face pale. Percy peeked over the edge and his heart stopped when he saw what Nico meant.

When Nico brought Percy to the rooftop, he had thought that the zombies wouldn’t be able to smell them from this height. However, layers and layers of zombies were sloppily climbing towards them, the last two humans of Manhattan while others gathered around the building, a groaning crowd waiting below. Nico had led both of them to a dead end. There was no escape.

Percy swung Riptide, his baseball bat, and beheaded the first zombie to reach them. Others didn’t stop, they kept climbing despite the failure of the first one, like sheep. Unconsciously and stupidly. Nico took care of those in the opposite corners, machete sliced and sliced through rotten limbs. He had told Percy about the gun in their open bag in case things got out of hand but it would do nothing to that number of the walking dead.

The zombie surge was a new definition used to describe an event when hundreds and thousands of bodies that had any part of the brain left awoke from long periods of hibernation. The zombies would be more aggressive and persistent because of their hunger. Their death-impaired senses would also make a temporary recovery to aid them in their hunts for fresh meat and weaker zombies. With the dead population of Manhattan crawling up below them, Nico knew their chance of survival was slim.

Percy cried out when his bat broke in half. The fallen piece surprised a few zombies, causing them to fall down on the undead crowd below but the rest sped up their climbing. The green-eyed started throwing punches, blood smeared on his fists. Nico was afraid that the crawling undead would grab Percy and tug him down from where he was standing.

“Be careful!” he shouted to Percy as he cut another head clean off. The handle was slicked with filthy blood now, Nico feared that it would slip through his fingers and fly out of reach.

His boyfriend didn’t answer but he ripped off a rotten leg to swing it at the approaching bodies. Nico wondered if the green-eyed was worn out yet. The corpses calmly ducked to avoid the falling bodies and moved on, some of them continued their pursuit for living flesh even after having fallen. 

Of course they didn’t manage to cover all directions. Of course some stupid zombies would sneak up behind Nico and tackle him. Of course Percy would run over to help him. And the zombies, with no one to stop them, made their way towards the two humans.

Nico promptly picked up the gun and kicked the backpack with their dirty clothes towards the undead, hoping it was enough of a distraction. He then turned around to take down four others behind him and Percy attacked the distracted ones, which were focusing on the smell of the bag.

Nico’s hope fractured and fell apart when the zombies pushed Percy backward, his boyfriend lying on his back, eyes blurred with pain. The dead bodies grunted and groaned when Nico kicked and shot them, trying to prevent them from getting close to Percy. 

“I love you, Nico,” Percy said and Nico knew the older teen had given up. He himself had also wanted to surrender but kept on fighting nonetheless for Percy. There was no point in doing so anymore, now that Percy had stopped struggling.

“I love you, too, Perseus,” he choked, tears flowing on his face. It was Percy’s fault, he had raised Nico’s hopes and made him believe in making through the apocalypse alive, had told Nico about a house and a cat in the future and had also crushed that vision like a bug.

They locked eyes, a devised plan was confirmed. They had thought of it one night as a joke, but this was the end to all dreams and hopes, every possible future door shut tight.

Percy stood up and gained his last pieces of strength to send the bodies back on the ground while Nico covered his back, firing their bullets to kill as many as possible. When the tips of his feet reached the edge, Percy backed off, turned around and kissed Nico out of plan. Tears kept sliding down their faces, the past regrets and crushed futuristic hopes poured into the kiss. Nico realized Percy tasted like decay, decomposition and death. The green-eyed leaned back, his arms around Nico and they plunged down from the height.

The zombies moved aside, giving them space, Nico could see past Percy’s shoulder. Percy had whispered “I love you” over and over again, Nico had hoped it would be the last thing he heard. In the end, it was the sickening sound of the body beneath him hitting the ground that filled Nico’s mind.

**Author's Note:**

> I am sorry. Comment to tell me off if you want.


End file.
